Category: Gardai

Law enforcement, mangled bodies and gombeenism

Even though I am a veteran observer of Irish incompetence and stupidity there are still times when I am absolutely astonished by the sheer ignorance of how we conduct our affairs and in particular how we deal with events that involve life and death situations.

Traffic Blues is the name of a new RTE programme that records the new Garda Traffic Corps in action. A number of people called into Liveline on Monday to comment on the most recent edition of this police programme.

The first incident concerned a motorist who was breaking the law by driving with a provisional licence without an accompanying qualified driver. She also had five young children in the back seat who were not wearing seat belts; three of these children were so young that they should have been secured in booster seats.

After some bizarre behaviour by the driver, which included getting down on her knees on the road to beg forgiveness from the garda, viewers were solemnly informed by a programme voiceover that the Garda was about to make a very serious point.

“It’s an on the spot fine, it’s an €80 fine and two penalty points for having children in the back of the car with no seat belts. So off you go there, thank you.”

We then witnessed a so called officer of the law allow this potential death car, with five children clearly at risk; drive off with an illegal driver in charge.

Unfortunately, this extremely dangerous and stupid decision by the Garda is not unusual in a country where law enforcement, at all levels, is a national joke.

The bizarre reaction of Joe Duffy further confirmed that as a nation we are light years away from understanding the basic connection between breaking traffic laws and the regular sight of dead and mangled bodies all over our roads. When a caller suggested that perhaps the errant motorist should not have been allowed to drive away Joe responded:

“But the thing that struck me was that the Gardai are very civil compared to the UK where every English policeman seems to have a tattoo for a start and every English policeman or woman seems to be have a combination of arrogance and ignorance when they’re dealing with the public as they flash their tattooed shoulders or arms. I just think that Gardai come across very well but you think they’re very soft.”

He later repeated this blanket condemnation of an entire police force that, in my opinion, is one of the most courteous and professional in the world.

“My point is the UK police are extraordinarily rough and uncouth with their tattoos and their mace and whatever else they spray on you. Maybe it’s a completely different environment but compared to our Gardai, our Gardai are civil guardians of the peace.”

This is a straight forward case of pathological denial. Joe Duffy is simply incapable of understanding that road traffic laws are there to protect lives, he’s incapable of making the connection between mangled and dead bodies scattered all over the road and the non enforcement of such laws and most of all he’s completely incapable of accepting for a moment the possibility that our police force has more in common with the Keystone Cops than a modern, professional law enforcement agency. Instead, Duffy reverts to the age old gombeenism of attacking the British.

While researching for this post I came across the following definition of denial:

“A mechanism of the immature mind, because it conflicts with the ability to learn from and cope with reality.”

Tragically, this definition applies to the majority of Irish citizens and is one of the principal reasons why our country is a complete failure as a state.

Copy to:
Joe Duffy

Cowen-Gate affair rolls on

There’s a good selection of letters in today’s Irish Times on the Cowen paintings affair. Here’s two, one very funny and the other very accurate.

Madam,

If I find there is an intruder sneaking around my home in the middle of the night, should I dial 999 and tell the operator that someone is attempting to nail a painting to my wall without permission? Because that seems to be a very effective way of getting the gardaí to respond quickly. I certainly won’t tell them that there’s a gang of bankers in the kitchen rummaging through my wallet.

Yours, etc,

SHANE Ó MEARÁIN,
Sandymount Road,
Sandymount,
Dublin 4.

Madam

The unfolding story of Cowen-Gate is an almost perfect parable of the life and abilities of this Government and Fianna Fáil.

With our economy in tatters, our education and health care systems decimated, more people unemployed than ever before, and cronyism and corruption rife in Irish life, it takes two satirical portraits of Brian Cowen in the nip and the ridiculous attempts to censor the coverage of them, for people to finally realise that the emperor has no clothes.

Sad to say, it seems that we are living in a banana republic without either the good weather or the bi-annual excitement of a change of government.

Yours etc,
HARRY LEECH,
Leinster Place,
Rathmines,
Dublin 6.

Angry letter from a policeman

A strong, angry letter from the Garda Representative Association in today’s Irish Examiner.

Credibility crisis for politicians

THE Government and our politicians lack the credibility required to lead the country. We’re told the country is in deep financial trouble, yet they continue to draw ridiculously inflated salaries, totally out of proportion to our size as an economy.

If, as the Taoiseach says, we all need to “put our shoulders to the wheel in order to save the economy”, why is it that public sector workers feel Mr Cowen’s weight, in addition to that of all the the other TDs and senators, on top of that wheel.

Where are the swingeing cuts to their salaries and expenses which would lend some credibility to their pronouncements? The public sector, on top of the pension levy, are to be hit with a 25% cut in travel and subsistence expenses while, at the same time, TDs are to receive a 10% cut to their expenses.

Is there something wrong with that? The public sector represents about one- sixth (or 17%) of the population currently in employment. What about the other 83%?

If gardaí, nurses, firemen, teachers, etc, receive a 7% or 8% cut in their wages they may no longer be able to pay their bills and feed their families, yet if the politicians, department mandarins and other fat-cats took a 50% cut across the board, they would still have a lifestyle the rest of us can only dream about.

The financial regulator, on retiring, walked away with more than e600,000 as a thank you.

Thanks for what? Have you seen the state of the banks? On that subject, our pension fund was used to recapitalise the banks.

If the banks needed money, how can the Bank of Ireland pay its workers a 3.5% pay increase which is being denied to both the public and private sectors at large. An all-party committee set up by the Dáil to look at ways of reducing the expenses of TDs and senators has, to date, cost the taxpayer an extra e400,000.

This whole thing is a sick joke on the ordinary people of this country.

When the Taoiseach starts to address that we can make progress and maybe save this country if its not already too late. Leadership. Not self-preservation.

Michael Corcoran
Centra Executive Committee
Garda Representative Association
Anglesea Street
Cork

Politicians – Watch your backs

“We share the same concerns as the ordinary members of the public. We see a few people who are in receipt of huge salaries who have mismanaged and driven our economy and our country almost to the edge of bankruptcy and they seem to be getting off scot-free.

Our colleagues and the ordinary workers out there will for years have to pay for this incompetence through pay cuts and levies and we can’t understand how these people have been allowed to get away scot-free

They receive huge salaries that you couldn’t even dream about and huge bonuses and they are motivated by one thing – greed. And we feel this should be dealt with.”

(Morning Ireland, 3rd report).

Is this Joe Higgins talking, is it a radical union leader, is it a revolutionary student?

No, it’s Joe Dirwan, General Secretary of the Association of Garda Sergeants and Inspectors talking about his members participation in the anti government protest march at the weekend and expressing his deep anger towards that same government for allowing greedy bankers to walk away with the loot.

The message? Politicians, watch your backs.

God bless Ireland

Picture the scene:

A large group of policemen are sitting around the station with nothing to do. Organised crime has been terminated; carnage on the roads has been brought to a halt; even white collar crime has, at last, been tackled and the jails are full.

What are we to do pleads a desperately enthusiastic rookie. The experienced Sgt. has the answer. C’mon me boyos, it’s Good Friday – Let’s raid the restaurants.

And so, the greatest insult to the Great One in his heavenly abode is finally redressed, the greatest danger facing the civilised world is narrowly averted by our boys in blue as they bravely tackle those evil, meat eating, wine drinking demons

The world, nay, the universe is at peace – God bless Ireland.

Low grade public representatives; misplaced loyalties

Tanaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, Mary Coughlan proudly
displays the following quote on her website.

‘Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centres of energy and daring, those ripples build a current that can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance.’

Unfortunately for the citizens of Ireland Ms. Coughlan doesn’t actually live by the sentiments expressed in the quote. She does not stand up for ideals, she does not act to improve the lot of others and she most certainly does not strike out against injustice.

About ten years ago the shocking scandal of Garda corruption in Donegal first became public. Over that period the Morris Tribunal has published six reports on the matter revealing the following outrages.

The framing of innocent citizens for murder, planting of explosives in order to gain promotion, unlawful arrests, mistreatment of citizens in custody, procurement of false confessions, perverting the course of justice and perjury. Not a single police officer has been charged in connection with any of these serious crimes and it is a certainty that none ever will.

In all those years, while all this slime was seeping from the national police force in a county where Ms. Coughlan is a public representative, a public representative who claims to strike out against injustice, had absolutely nothing to say on the matter until last Friday.

During an interview on RTE (1st report) in which the presenter, Sean O’Rourke, described the scandal as a tragedy for the Gardai in Donegal, Ms. Coughlan was asked if she was satisfied that the Gardai were now operating to the very highest standards.

The following is her reply with my comments in brackets.

“Well, I have to be very careful with this being married to a member of the force and therefore have not until today made any public comment on the matter.”

(This low grade politician is asking us to believe that she has remained silent on this national scandal for ten years because she’s married to a member of the police force. Her mealy mouthed and cowardly words are an insult to the intelligence of all right thinking citizens.)

“There are many issues that are being addressed by the Garda authorities and by the relevant ministers over the last number of years.”

(When the Deputy Commissioner of the force was asked what action was being taken against the rogue policemen he said he was powerless to act against them. It’s five years since the first report was published and we are still waiting for the matter to be seriously debated by our irresponsible and incompetent politicians in our national parliament.)

“This has been very fundamentally difficult time for many members of the force who have found that perhaps they have been let down or that there was public vilification of them even though they may not have been involved.”

(Look again at the above list of outrages perpetuated by Donegal Gardai, outrages that have destroyed the lives of dozens of innocent citizens, outrages that will never be accounted for and decide if the Gardai are deserving of the Minister’s sympathy.)

“But I think there has been a lot of lessons learned, good management structures are there and people are moving on and taking the lessons of what has happened. But of course one has to await the final outcome and the public discourse that will take place and my view on all of these issues is that very serious issues arose, very serious lessons have been learned and arising from those lessons the fundamentals are being rejuvenated into members of the force in my county.”

(This is a typical example of the unintelligible drivel Irish citizens are constantly assaulted with by our low grade public representatives. The insulting waffle is laced with the usual inane excuses for incompetence and inaction – lessons have been learned; new management structures have been put in place;; have to await the final outcome of the tribunal; we must move on blah, blah, blah.)

Mary Coughlan is one of those politicians who steadfastly stood by Bertie Ahern even as his fantasy tales changed by the week and became ever more bizarre. Her blind loyalty to Ahern was a betrayal of the Irish people and her unquestioned loyalty to Brian Cowen, a man who rates loyalty to party above loyalty to country bodes ill for the people of Ireland.

Copy to:
Ms Coughlan

Gardai – Still an undisciplined force

The figures published yesterday in the first report of the Garda Ombudsman Commission are staggering and very disturbing (RTE News, 2nd report).

Nearly 3,000 complaints plus 300 referrals from the Garda Commissioner.

750 investigations into allegations of criminal conduct – mostly of assault.

Nine files sent to the Director of Public Prosecutions (Only very serious cases are referred to the DPP).

Clearly, Judge Morris was correct when he said that the Gardai were losing their status as a disciplined force.

It should also be noted that millions are paid out each year by the taxpayer to compensate citizens who have been assaulted or otherwise damaged by Gardai.

The details of the vast bulk of these cases remain a State secret because the Gardai do not come under the remit of the Freedom of Information Act as is the norm in most Western democracies.

Judging by the attitude of the Garda Representative Association’s new president, Michael O’Boyce, the Commission has a lot more work to do. O’Boyce made a scathing attack on the Commission accusing it of blundering incompetence. Commission member Carmel Foley was strong in her response.

“I really wonder if this is all about Gardai being unable to contemplate the fact that another body can walk into a Garda station with a search warrant and conduct a search of the premises. I think they’re going to have to get used to that.”

RTEs reporting of the Rossiter case

I was puzzled and to some degree I’m still puzzled by RTE’s coverage of the Brian Rossiter report.

The presenter of Today with Pat Kenny (See previous post) clearly said to Philip Boucher Hayes, who had seen the report:

“You’ve seen the report; the rest of us will not get to see the full report.”

I think the crucial word here is ‘full’. It seems that some of the report has been published but because the former Minister for Justice, Michael McDowell, insisted on setting up the inquiry under the arcane Metropolitan Police Act, 1924, sections of the report must remain secret because the act offers no protection from defamation on publication.

For me, the most disturbing aspect of the report’s release is how RTE news dealt with the event. Admittedly, I’m only making comment here on one programme, Six One News, but the impression given, I think, was that the Gardai had little to answer for.

Viewers were not informed that the arcane legislation this inquiry was set up under would seriously compromise its publication. My understanding is that only a summary of the report has been published. Viewers were not told that they were only getting a small part of the story.

RTE news placed great emphasis on the unreliability of witnesses who were hostile to the Gardai.

While reporting that Brian Rossiter was unlawfully detained overnight by Gardai, RTE emphasised that Hugh Hartnett SC, the reports author, was not satisfied that Brian Rossiter was assaulted in Garda custody.

Viewers were not informed, however, that the report also found there was a statistical probability that Brian Rossiter sustained his fatal injury while in Garda custody.

I’m puzzled here because of the apparent contradiction, perhaps an expert witness came to the conclusion regarding the statistical probability. In any case, RTE did not make any of this clear to viewers.

The overall impression given was that the report was fully published, that all the details of the case were available and that the Gardai were, in the main, innocent of any wrongdoing.

The Rossiter family does not agree and are very unhappy with the report. I tend to agree with them

Brian Rossiter case – A State secret

Brian Rossiter (14) was found unconscious in a cell in Clonmel Garda Station following his arrest in the town on 10 September 2002. He died a few days later.

Despite repeated calls for an independent investigation into the matter it wasn’t until June 2005 that the then Justice Minister, Michael McDowell, established an inquiry. That report has now completed its work.

No evidence was found to support the claim that Rossiter was assaulted while in custody but the report did find that there was a statistical probability that that was when he sustained the fatal injury.

In keeping with the culture of secrecy and non-accountability in Ireland, this report will not be published.

Philip Boucher Hayes of RTEs Investigative Unit did, however, read the report and explained on Today with Pat Kenny (Friday, 32nd minute) why it is being kept secret from the public.

Former Justice Minister, Michael McDowell introduced a new vehicle for investigation into enquiries of this kind called a commission of investigation. This was to be the slimmed down version of a tribunal of enquiry.

Yet, for some reason, at the same time he was pushing this idea enthusiastically he set up the inquiry into the death of Brian Rossiter under an arcane piece of legislation, the Metropolitan Police Act, 1924.

It was pointed out to him that the Commission of Inquiry would be perfect for this kind of inquiry so why not use it?

No, this was to be a disciplinary procedure, if you like within An Garda Siochana, this was the piece of legislation to use and oddly, it was one that he ended up scrapping off the statutes a couple of months later.

This was the last time that this piece of legislation was used and the problem with it is that it offers no protection from defamation when the report of the inquiry is published.

Tribunal reports can be quoted and analysed without the fear of being sued. We cannot do this with this report because there’s no protection against defamation and that’s because Michael McDowell set it up under this piece of legislation.

Previous posts here, here and here

Useful links here and here.

New whistleblower charter

The introduction of a new whistleblowers charter was discussed on a recent Prime Time programme.

Frank McBrearty Jnr, and Jim Cusack, Security Correspondent for the Sunday Independent are not at all happy with the new system.

According to Cusack the new system does the complete opposite to what it’s supposed to do saying that it is in reality a protection for the permanent and elected government.

Miriam O’Callaghan questioned that part of the 2007 regulations that merely talks about taking all practicable steps to ensure the identity of the confidential reporter is protected.

The overall objection seems to be that the new system is not really independent – Time will tell.